A conventional circuit breaker is typically included within an electrical circuit to protect the circuit from persistent over current conditions, short circuits, faults, etc. Various wires of the electrical circuit are connected to the circuit breaker by an installer. These wires may include “load neutral” and/or “load power” wires. To facilitate the connection of such wires to the circuit breaker, a conventional circuit breaker may include “wire lugs”, sometimes simply referred to as “lugs”. One type of lug which may be used in a circuit breaker includes a “lug body” having a hole or receiver intended to receive the wire (hereinafter the “wire receiver”) and a threaded hole which may be perpendicular to, and communicate with the wire receiver. (Lugs vary widely. A lug may not have a lug body, for example, but only a screw through two plates. In addition, a wire receiver may take different forms in different lugs. For example, two metal plates which can be pressed together to hold a wire can be a wire receiver.) This type of lug may also include a “lug screw” which may be inserted into the threaded hole. When the lug screw is inserted into the lug body, the combination is referred to herein as a “lug assembly.” When the installer connects a wire to the circuit breaker, the installer generally strips an end of the wire and inserts it into the wire receiver of the lug body far enough such that, when the installer tightens the lug screw, the body of the screw will enter the wire receiver and contact the inserted wire. The installer will then normally tighten the lug screw sufficiently to prevent the wire from being pulled from the lug assembly under conditions of normal use.
Circuit breakers are typically shipped with one or more lug assemblies set up such that the lug screws are screwed into the lug bodies, but not so far that any part of the screw enters the wire receiver from the threaded screw hole. This obviates the need for the installer to install the lug screw into the lug body, or to clear the lug screw from the wire receiver prior to inserting a wire.